Wichita eagle., 1887-11-12
RESUME.
A Condensed History of the Incl
dents Leading to the Haymar-
ket Tragedy of May 4, 1886.
The Mysterious !. A. A.---The Eight Men,
berS WhU Led Themselves to Ruin
The Haymarket Meeting.
The Policemen's Charge---The First Bomb
The ArreSts--The Convictions
Blood for Blood.

A more striking procession of civic events
may never again be witnessed than the one
having its latest outcome today.
The supposed absurdly theatrical demon
stration with red banners and black that
took place in the streets OF Chicago not
two winters ago followed soon afterward
by the picturesque, yet ominous, Sunday
gatherings of tatferdemaEons, foreigners
and demagogues on the broad common at
the lake front are now recalled as the
quick forerunners of secret cellar-drillings
by hundreds of ignorant, fanatical rifle
men in the purlious throughout the city.
Then came the cool. deliberate dynamite
experiments by carefully selected masked
representatives, in the woods skirting the
suburbs Later on, secluded in the quiet
of downtown back rooms,
DARK CoNCLAvEs
of wild-idead but brainy, interruptions
leaders eagerly discussed as their long
coveted opportunity the ust-beginning de-
velopment of the workingman's concerted
movement for uniform eight hour day.
How the gigantic, peaceful strikes were
turned into riots, how the entire world
was startled by the blood-chilling bomb
massacre in the Haymarket, then the ma
jestic state trial, the amazing bravado of
the one American defendant, the horribly
grotesque marriage of another one OF the
prisoners-every detail of these strange oc
currences and the extraordinary train sue
ceeding now presents itself again as if
the whole had passed but yesterday.
The key note of it all is found in the
platform of
THE MYSTERIOUS 1. A. A,
International Arbeiter (Workingmen s. as
sociation-of which organization August
Spies and his seven co-defendants were
leading members and upholders. In the
international platform it is urged that the
present system under which property is
owned by individuals should be destroyed,
and that all capital which has been pro-
duced by labor should be transformed into
common property "by force" Eighty
groups Of this d niger )us organization
existed in the [ nited States, chiefly at the
great industrial centers, Chicago alone be-
ing the ill-starred possessor of seven. Only
a portion of the members were armed, yet
the number of this class in Chicago exceed
ed 5000, every man of whom attended reg
ular military drills had his own rifle and
revolver, and could obtain
DYNAMITE AND BOMBS
for the asking The unarmed members of
the groups were constantly in contact with
their armed brethren and in hearty sym
pathy with their purpose and their princi-
pies 1t was this compact, well disciplin-
ed l. A. A. that had for its organs three
now motel newspapers-the Arbeter lei
tung, the Alarm and the Anarchist EX-
cepting handsome, youthful Louis Lingg,
who. though taking conspicuous part,
was mere acting agent, each of
THE EIGHT HAYMARKET DEFENDANTS
was directly connected with one of these
papers.
August Spies, keen, cynical Hessian,
with the subtle intellectual vigor of an
lago, was editor-in-chief Of the Arbelter.
The jaunty, daredevil little Texan, Albert
r. Parsons brother of Confederate Gen
eral, presided over the Alarm. At the
head of the Anarchist, George Engel, an
other Hessian, of a coarse, brutal type,
out-Heroded the most bloOd-thirSty utter
anceS of his compeers. While sam tlel-
den, the Englishman, sullen looking, shay
gy and forbidding but as an agiUator sim
ply volcanic, and Oscar Neebe, the polish
ed, attractive German-American organizer,
were more especially concerned in other
than journalistic branches of the propas
ganda. they were, nevertheless, among the
directors respectively OF the Alarm and the
Arheiter Zeitung The gaunt Bavarian
Michael Swab was Spies assistant editor,
and his fellow countryman, Adolph Fisch-
er, he of the poisoned dagger, WAS the Ar
beiter'S head foreman.
Not one of these men-hOweycr they
might split hairs, could candidly deny
that he was instrumental TO greater or
less degree in helping on the catastrophe
at the Hayuarket Of the legal guilt of
each nothing need be said further than
that it's certainty was put to tests seldom
if ever paralleled.
AGITATING AND ORGANIZING
In demonstrations and experiments"
Their speeches and articles fairly bristled
with imprisoned appeals for the laborinC
people to provide themselves with fire
arms and dynamite. Specific instructions
were given how to handle and use the ex-
plosive, and how 70 make bombs and how
to procure weapons. All this was stated
by the conspirators to be making ready
FOR the coming social revolution" What
was meant by social revolution was not
left to he vaguely inferred, nor was the
time when il was to be inaugurated
dim uncertainty of the future The
revolution was frequently defined in
speech and writing as sudden, bloody,
forcible upheaval of the right of private
ownership of property, then the bringing
about OF a state of society in which all
property should be held in common.
Incredible as it it may seem, the avowed
purpose was
TO DELUGE THE CITY IN BLOOD
of the property owning classes, first de-
Stroying the police and militia. who were
derided as their special champions The
period of confusion developing from the
mammoth strikes of the first of May, 1886
was definitely announced months before
as the time when the fearful bolt should
fall. Pitiless as was this program and
difficult as a belief is that it ever was con-
templated by men. the facts as stated were
abundantiy proven N court.
The diabolism was fully shared in by
women. Especially so was this the case in
the
FANTASTIC PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS
like the red-fiag professions of ragamuffins
with torches that attempted at night to
enter the magnificent new board of trade
when the dedication festivities of the in
stitution had for the time being trans
formed the large building into a scene of
social hrilliancy without a local prece-
dent. The repulsive, disappearing intru-
aers of both sexes were Sternly forced back 1
at the muZZle of three dozen police revol- !
vers. In affairs like this the dusky wife
of Parsons and other no less desperate
women seemed in their proper element.
OF the many other queer outbreaks pre-
ceding the Haymarket tragedy, the most
startling at the time, perhaps, was the
parade Thanksgiving Day, when in ridi-
cule of President Cleveland's proclama-
ton, nearly thousand uncouth men and
women of the slums, headed by banners of
black and red, traversed the choice resi-
sence avenues wildly yelling and soothing
Ut the well-dressed people who crowded to
the windows, anxious to learn the cause of
tumuit.
The city authorities affected of some
reason to ignore all ebullitions OF the mob |
Ac IL